Sunday, June 5, 2011

DIY Stone Patio Landing

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From the comfort of the Adirondack chairs which were perfectly relocated to the shady side of the yard, I supervised the placing of the stones.   :)

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The DIY bug has taken hold.  I think a lot of it has to do with finally finding a Handyman to help us with the things we don’t dare do ourselves.   Ask and you shall receive.  Now I’m not bragging …well, maybe I am a little…but now we now have two Handymen.  Handyman #2 turned up last week.  Turns out he was the Project Manager who helped build our house 10 years ago and he just happens to be friends with Handyman #1 who recommended him to us when we asked him if he knew a gutter guy.    With the building business the way it is these days, we thought he was long gone.  Our new gutter guy, Handyman # 2, knows our house inside and out.  Probably better than we do!  It was fun to see him after all this time.  Between the two of them, Handyman #1 and Handyman #2, we should have this place in great shape in no time. 

Anyway, while the Handymen were hard at work doing the things we don’t dare try ourselves, we decided to try our hands at installing some cobblestones and make ourselves a small stone landing area at the bottom of our deck stairs. 

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My handsome husband dug out the area and we spread the screening material to help secure the stones and make the area level.  We played around with the layout of the stones.  We had a mixture of large and small stones.  At first we wanted to curve the edges but being the green and totally un-experienced beginners that we are, we decide to stick with a more rectangular shape.  The main reason for this is that the curves left lots of gaps and spaces.  And since the last thing we wanted to do was rent a wet saw to cut the stones into smaller pieces, we went back to the safety of the square/rectangle.    Maybe we’ll tackle something curvy in the future. 

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  After the stones were set, we spread more screening across the top to fill in the gaps. 

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My husband swept it and then sprayed it down with water.  We have to get back to Lowe’s where we purchased our materials to get some sand.  We are going to spread some sand across the top to fill in some more after everything dries. 

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There are lots of video’s and help out there.  Here is a link to a video on YouTube that helped us out a lot.

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This was not expensive to do.  Less than $100 dollars and we that realized that we bought too many stones after we decided to abandon the curvy layout so we have about 20 that we can return

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We still need to clean it up and get all the excess sand removed but you can get a good idea from this shot how it looks.   

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Now, back to sitting in the shade with some ice cold drinks and a few magazines where we can discuss our next project.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

15 comments:

Gone Country said...

Your landing looks great! Your hubby did a great job!

It's a nice feeling to 'get stuff done' (no matter WHO'S doing it *smile*!).

Lynn said...

It turned out great:@)

Kim @ Savvy Southern Style said...

Nice landing and doesn't it feel good to get it done. Now just chill in the shade with those drinks.

Marie@Procrastinating in Pink said...

This looks great!! I wish my hubby could get a few tips from yours! lol!

The enchanted home said...

Love how the landing came out! Love the mix of cool and warm tones, one of my favorite combinations....and aren't adirondack chairs the most comfortable chair ever!

Anonymous said...

Love inexpensive home improvement projects that add so much to a home's look.

Don't forget to put a strawberry in your lemonade!

Di

René said...

What a great landing! Now see if he can come to my house :)

SimplySandi said...

It looks great. It's too hot here in Texas to even go outside.

Stacey said...

The DIY bug is dangerous! We never stop in our yard. It's so worth the hard work though. Your stone pavers made the perfect landing for the stairs.

Jan@southernjunkin' said...

Surfing blogland and found you! Love the black chairs! Really pop! Nice stone work too! Landing turned out great!
Blessings!!

greenthumb said...

Looks like all your hard work paid off, looks great.

Sue said...

Looks great! We did a stone project this weekend as well. If I was still blogging I would post pics. We put in another patio with a fire ring also with stone from Lowes. It is about 16 ft diameter so we needed a lot more of the skreet- quarry dust. Just an FYI, if you do a bigger project, it is much cheaper to have the Garden Outlet in Summerfield deliver the stone (1/3 the cost of the bagged stuff at Lowes). Now we are looking for 4 adirondacks to put around the fire.
Sue in Stokesdale

Janet Metzger, Artist said...

That looks so great!!

I'm ready for my cold drink now ;->

janet xox

foxy said...

That looks awesome! You did some good supervising!! ;)

Bring Pretty Back said...

It looks great! And under 100 dollars - that is great!
Sitting back and enjoying what you've done - PRICELESS!
Have a pretty day!
Kristin